TINDER. It’s the dating app of choice for Aussie singles. 
It seems as though almost everyone on Australia’s dating scene has a funny story to tell about their experience using the app.
Though the company has declined to release the number of accounts created since it launched in September last year, Tinder users have rated each other’s profiles 3.5 billion times and have been matched up 35 million times, according to Forbes.
And the app is downloaded more than 1000 times a day in Australia, as of last week, according to Joshua Metz, Tinder’s Aussie brand manager.
So what makes this app stand apart from so many other dating apps like Grindr, Blendr and RSVP?
Well, according to Sydney app developer Dan Nolan, “it’s one of the most ethical dating apps on the market”. It’s also really simple to use.
Basically, after signing up to the app, Tinder will show you users nearby that it thinks you may like based on your mutual interests and friends (it uses information from your Facebook account) and lets you anonymously “like” them by swiping right, or reject them by swiping left.
But the app protects its users from humiliation – it won’t inform users if their profile has been liked or rejected. And the only time you can begin communicating with the other user is if they have liked you back.
Once a user likes you back then Tinder will make an introduction and let you chat within the app. Mr Nolan told this source that the app actively works to prevent “the creep factor”.
“It’s a lot more ethical than other services out there, because you don’t have to put as much on the line,” Mr Nolan said.
“You can’t randomly be messaged by strangers. You don’t get the same kind of creeps that you do on other services.
“It’s a calmer, kinder, gentler dating app”.
Karalee Evans, head of social at one of Australia’s leading ad agencies, told news.com.au that it cuts down the time that would ordinarily be spent going on a bad date.
“Now you can filter out potential dud dates on your phone while you’re waiting to get the bus in the morning,” she said.
“You could use that 14 minutes of down time to choose your date for that night, instead of listening to that podcast.”
Even for people who really haven’t had a lot of luck lining up a date on the service, it seems to encourage perseverance.
Sydney man, Matt, aged 27, told news.com.au that he hadn’t had a lot of luck using the service. While his room-mate “gets a match every five seconds”, Matt says he has barely made any matches and hasn’t successfully lined up a single date.
“I’ve taken it a little bit easy, I don’t tend to get many matches and the matches I do get I’m not really interested in,” he said. “I get more luck in the real world than on Tinder.”
But surprisingly Matt says the rejection hasn’t dissuaded him at all.
“It’s the best social media app I’ve used in a long time,” he says. “It’s addictive too. I go on there every day and write to a few people, like a bunch of girls’ profiles, I like to see what’s going on.”
However he admitted he may be using his “likes” too liberally.
